DocQment

There is a customer satisfaction survey for documentation online at GE Industrial. The survey is available in seven languages and addresses both software and hardware manuals.

The May issue of STC’s Intercom magazine includes the Quest for Quality column, which addresses how to build a customer satisfaction measurement survey. The example is an information product.

IBM (formerly Rational) RequisitePro is a powerful tool for writing software requirements.

This tool is most effective when you are managing hundreds of requirements. Authors write with MS Word, and the requirements become part of a database which provides flexibility in retrieval and reporting.

stpBA Storyboarding integrates requirements management with diagramming of task flows and specifications. It can be used as a standalone tool, or integrated with IBM RequisitePro.

Omnigroup has a suite of tools for the Macintosh. OmniOutliner is the application for writing requirements, and it integrates with OmniGraffle, a popular visualization tool.

The Confluence Wiki is being used for collaborative work, including writing requirements.

The July 2006 IDeaL newsletter of the Instructional Design and Learning SIG was published yesterday, and IDL SIG membership manager Sylvia Miller recounts a story from Dot Champlin, in Dot’s own words, about a play produced this spring in Rochester, New York by the Rochester Section of the American Society for Quality, with a lot of help from STC members!

“Some of our (Rochester Chapter) STC members are also members of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Last year, the ASQ members had expressed an interest in changing the pace of their yearly conference from the usual Keynote/Sessions format. So this year, the conference chair (Amy Friend), a dual STC/ASQ member, asked an STC member (Lori Marra), who has a serious interest in play writing, to write a little play that would illustrate the basic principles of quality for the enjoyment of the attendees. She agreed, and we presented the play at the local ASQ conference in April. (more…)

by Wanda Phillips, Senior Member, Canada West Coast and Puget Sound chapters and QPI SIG

I’ve been working on my Six Sigma Green Belt for a year now. The training is through my employer, Philips (Ultrasound and Monitoring), and my manager selected the project. It turns out to be a huge project with the potential for incredible savings and increased reliability. As a Green Belt, I’m expected to also keep up with my writing workload.  (more…)

This starts a resource list on standards.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States maintains a site, http://standards.gov, that is a portal to infomation on the specifications referred to in US goverment regulations. Included are a searchable database and links to websites on standards maintained by government and other agencies.

This starts a list of resources on the topic of quality management. The QPI SIG also has a list of quality management standards.

The BetterManagement site identifies resources for management of performance and information technology as well as financial management: http://www.bettermanagement.com

Diane Evans, member of the Puget Sound chapter and the Quality and Process Improvement SIG, published the article “Document Control Systems” in the April 2006 issue of STC’s Intercom magazine. The article reviews configuration management, document control software, and search engines and emphasizes the importance of business rules in effective operation of document control systems.

 by Rod Ward, Member Australia Chapter and QPI SIG

I’ve provided a zip file you can download, containing a typical Visio file of a navigable business process, created according to the methodology I outlined in “How to build an interactive flowchart with Visio.” This is a version of a Visio file that I did for a client, with all the references to the client removed. This process is a Workplace Hazard Management Process. There is another more complex one for handling actual safety incidents (where someone gets hurt or real damage occurs) and it has at least three levels, but this one shows the basic idea just as well. (more…)

by Rod Ward, Member Australia Chapter and QPI SIG

This article is based on a post by Rod on the Information Design and Architecture SIG list on June 12, 2006 and appears by Rod’s permission.

There are any number of tools that can be used to build an interactive visual document with links to more detailed information. To build a flowchart of this kind, Visio (2003) is effective and especially useful because it is standard on corporate software lists and therefore easy for others to edit and update.

Recently I used Visio’s Cross-functional Flowchart wizard to build multi-page swim lane diagrams of complex organisational processes, and then inserted hyperlinks on action shapes to link out to web page content residing on an intranet and in my client’s corporate SAP Knowledge Warehouse. (more…)

by Amy S. Friend BB, CQM, Senior Member Rochester Chapter STC

This is part 1 of a series: Revel in Your Discomfort: Living With Change. An earlier version of these articles was published in the Proof Sheet newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of STC, beginning in November, 1996.

I keep waiting for the pace of life to slow down. Change is constant, with no end in sight. This can be overwhelming. This past year (1995), I participated in a workshop called “Living In Turbulent Times” on coping with change. I found some of the principles helpful when dealing with change both at work and at home. In this series I will share with you some change concepts. I hope this will help you to organize your thinking about change and give you a few strategies to handle it. (more…)

The “Documentation Checklist/Audit Form” by James Eiland supports a method of quality assurance for developing documents. The checklist was created specifically for Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). There are numbered sections which correspond to paragraph heads in a typical template for an SOP. However, the checklist could be made more generic and apply to any type of documentation, or be customized for other specific types. 
 
The checklist incorporates provisions from ISO 9000 for continuous improvement and client satisfaction measurement. 
 
How would you customize this checklist for use by your organization in assuring quality of documentation and satisfaction of your customers? Please leave comments, and the QPI SIG will aggregate the comments received in a more generic checklist to help guide authors, editors, instructors, and reviewers to verify and validate technical documentation efforts in a standardized manner. 
 
Please suggest in your comments also the points in the documentation life cycle where the checklist could be used. 

Short biographies of several gurus are presented on http://www.murtongroup.com/qgurus.htm. Each biography is followed by information about that person’s theories and tools.

Information about gurus and other personalities in quality, as well as a discussion forum, are found on http://www.qualitygurus.com

The W. Edwards Deming Institute, http://www.deming.org, was founded in 1993 by Deming. The site has information about Deming and the institute, the criteria for the Deming prize, and a newsletter. The site offers videos and books about Deming for purchase.

A short biography of Joseph Juran is on the website of the Carlson School of Management: http://www.csom.umn.edu/page1275.aspx

A New Zealand website offers case studies and examples from organizations that have improved using the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. The site also offers a primer on Baldrige, worksheets, a presentation on how to do a self assessment and tips on writing the award application. Please visit http://www.baldrigeplus.com.

The Society for Leadership of Change sponsors events, publishes a quarterly online newsletter, and has web resources including a change management bookstore, links, white papers and articles, a forum, a career center and “ask an expert” service. One year of membership is free. Please visit http://www.theslc.org.

Process improvement efforts pervade every sector of society today, and not for profit organizations are no exception. In STC, the Quality and Process Improvement SIG is following a performance management system. This starts with tracking key measures related to satisfaction and retention of members, and growth.

Also tracked are performance in the stages of the Section Management Process of the American Society for Quality, and monthly performance against the STC Newsletter Competition Guidelines and the criteria for the STC Community Achievement Award.

Benchmarking started with looking for data on expectations for retaining members. This article applies: “Member Retention Key to Association Growth” The link was current in December 2005.